Lost Immortal
by ParadigmShifter
Summary: (Highlander crossover) When Xander is killed, things begin to fall apart quickly... Chapter 3 up! Xander and Angel meet in LA...
1. Chapter 1: Death is not the End

I cannot say this enough: DARK FIC!!! Evidence of my state of mind when I dreamed this up.

Disclaimer: Joss, WB, UPN et al. own Buffy. I do not. Panzer/Davis etc own Highlander. Deep feelings of depression after reading are in no way my responsibility. You chose to read it, ignoring all the warnings…

Author: Paradigm Shifter

Title: Lost Immortal

Rating: Oh, hell. Everything I write is R, cause I don't know what the ratings mean. However: MULTIPLE CHARACTER DEATH!!!

Pairing: No real pairing. Just very slight Buffy/Angel, Willow/Oz, Xander/Cordelia

Feedback: Yeah! But no flames… The warning is at the top: DARK FIC!

Continuity: Up to Graduation. (Season 3 Finale) Then goes totally off track, no road trip, no Angel and Cordy leaving. But, in one respect, they do…

Notes: This is a diversion to get me writing again, after being thoroughly disheartened by the progress of a novel I'm (trying) to write. My Latin is a bit rusty, sorry. Also trying to make the opener more than just one sentence…

*

Xander stood in the clearing created by Acolytes to the demon Buffy was currently fighting. A shocked expression covered his face, which was deathly white.

The little colour that was left drained out as he looked at where his chest should have been. Where it had been just seconds before, lungs, heart and bones, nothing was left in the hole, which was eight inches across, a perfect circle straight through his body.

It came about by the demon, which Xander would have been the first to admit he would never survive a head to head with. It wasn't the run-of-the-mill demon that was all brawn and no brain. While large, this one had both brawn and brain, in equal measure. While Buffy attacked it, and Angel blindsided it carefully, it had merely defended itself, and made a complex motion in the air.

Syllables that sounded completely alien came out of the demons mouth, while air rippled around its fingers. "Aloc Norodere Infusirerior…" The final syllable echoed in the suddenly still air, as the ground shook, throwing Buffy off of her feet and into Angel, who dropped his sword to stop her fall. A small area around the demons hand rippled and condensed, as the air thickened around his closed fist. The strike had been aimed at Buffy, but with the ground shaking, she wouldn't stay in one place. The ball of solid air passed harmlessly over her back as she overbalanced again, and continued on. The demon growled at the waste of a spell, but teeth showed when he saw that it had hit someone after all. Xander.

At Willow, Oz', Giles and Cordelia's frightened gasp, he looked up to see Buffy and Angel, instead of fighting the demon, watching in horror as Xander collapsed on the dirt floor. He was dead before his knees touched the ground…

*

Angel and Buffy stared in horror at the sight of Xander with a hole in his chest. Well, if it could be described as a hole, because it was so big that it wasn't so much a hole as the sudden surgical removal of most of Xander's chest. It looked like a tank shell had gone through him.

Angel shook himself out of the stupor caused by shock, and grabbed Buffy, pulling her away from the demon. "We have to get out of here! We can't beat this thing!"

Buffy shook him off. "NO! XANDER!"

Angel quickly made a decision. "Sorry Buffy." He muttered under his breath, before slugging her in the jaw hard enough to knock her out. He slung her on his shoulder and ran to Giles.

"We have to get out of here!" Screamed Angel as the demon summoned another magical conflagration. "Get Xander!"

Giles was shocked out of his trance with those words, gripping Oz' arm, asking for help. Willow and Cordelia stood mute now, with silent tears steaming down their faces. 

Again, Angel had to be cruel to be kind. "Mourn later! For now, get out of here!" Pushing the two roughly with his free hand, he headed for the exit, making sure Giles and Oz were close behind with the body of Xander.

*

It was the funeral of Xander Harris. The Scooby Gang stood around in silence, watching the priest give the final blessing before the coffin was lowered into the ground.

The priest made the sign of the cross over the mourners, which Angel flinched from. He was a vampire after all.

"Pater et Filius et Spiritus Sanctus…"

Angel muttered something under his breath. "May the soul of this man, Xander Harris, and the souls of all the Faithful departed, through the Mercy of God, rest in peace…" Before Angel had been turned, his family had been Irish Catholics. Angel himself had not been a good one, but some stuff just sticks with you, even after 220 years of disuse.

The three girls were huddled together, crying at their friends demise. It would be hard to decide which needed comfort more, Willow, his best friend, Cordelia, his girlfriend, or Buffy, the one who was meant to be looking after him. Oz stood near Willow, face impassive, but eyes showing the depth of his grief. Giles stood apart from the group, watching the grave, trying obviously not to cry.

He wasn't successful.

Angel just stood and watched the group, falling apart already from the death of just one of their number.

Little did Angel know, that with the death of Alexander Harris, that before the year was out, he would be the only remaining member of the Scooby gang…

*

Xander screamed loudly in his dark prison. No one was there to hear him. No one went near the cemeteries any more. They were too dangerous.

"Where the hell am I?"

No response.

"Is this hell?"

No one heard the question.

Xander felt about in his coffin. "Am I in a coffin?"

Panic gripped him. "I'm in a coffin! HELP!"

Struggling, Xander started beating at the lid. It refused to move. "Oh God, they buried me alive…" The words struck something in Xander's memory. "No. They didn't I was dead. I was DEAD! What the hell is going on here? Why am I still alive? Am I a vampire?"

Xander felt his chest, remembering the gaping hole that had been there. His heartbeat thudded against his probing fingertips, assuring him he wasn't a vampire.

"What the hell am I then?" With that question foremost in his mind, Xander began to dig his way out…

*

Sunnydale, 4002 AD.

The Hellmouth slowly opened revealing the conflagration inside.  The demon which two millennia before had killed Xander Harris was standing at the entrance.  The sad remnants of the Scooby gang surrounded him. Sunnydale had become damnable place in which all manner of demons took refuge from the world that they sought to destroy.  For the past 2000 years, Sunnydale had become the pariah of America, and indeed the whole world.

No one was allowed in, and no one was allowed out.  The demon saw to that.

Demons of all shapes and sizes could freely pass as they wished.  The human population of Sunnydale however, was used primarily as feeding source for those required them.  Those that chose to serve were rewarded with several possibilities: they could be turned, becoming one of the demons themselves hunting on those they used to protect, or they could be used as the concubines of whatever demon desired them, whether male or female some demon would always pick them.

Xander was about to stop this.  For the third time, he had sneaked his way into Sunnydale.  Giles was aware of him, and therefore probably so was the demon.  When he had visited his friend's graves that Angel told about when they met in LA, he had encountered Giles and what the demon had done to him.  Horrors beyond imagining had been committed against the defiled corpses of his friends.  Their graves desecrated, and their bodies destroyed.  The demon seem to have power over just about everything, because he had done horrible, terrible things to those Xander had once called his friends.

Giles had become what he spent his entire life fighting.  A vampire, a dark creature of the night, formed to feast on the blood of the living, and hunt those he had spent his lifetime protecting.

As the hell mouth opened its widest, Xander stepped forward and bellowed a challenge to the demon that had made his life, his never-ending life as an immortal one of unbearable torment.  Before the demon could even respond, Xander was cut down by hail of lightning from Willow, before being attacked by whatever it was the demon had turned Buffy into.  The disgusting rotted corpse of Buffy attacked him with the same vigour that she used to attacked vampires with.

The immortal form of Xander, after 2000 years of trying to get revenge for what the demon had done to him and his friends, was while far stronger than the zombie that Willow had become, useless at magic. The electrical arcs surged through Xander's body, overloading nerves and bursting organs as it went.

As the immortal form of Xander collapsed onto its knees, the demon stepped forward toward him, the swirling energies of the Hellmouth giving a stark, chaotic background to the slick, oily look of the demon.

"You will never win, boy. Your friends will see to that…" The demon hissed at Xander, before drawing back its hand.

Xander, in the final moments looked at the demon that caused his downfall straight in the eyes.

"It is not whether you win or lose, it is how you play the Game…" a sick laugh, twisted by the ravages of time escaped his lips, displaying the madness his friends death inflicted on him.

The laugh echoed, and was slowly sucked into hell, as the portal opened further.

As Xander closed his eyes, the demon brought down its hand, cleaving off the immortals head, ending his torment finally…

*

It isn't over yet, there will be further chapters, expect it to switch scenes very quickly (like highlander) it will be short (only a few chapters) it is only intended to get my muse going again. It seems to have been on holiday with no forwarding address for the past few months…


	2. Chapter 2: Requiem for a Friend

Disclaimer: Joss, WB, UPN et al. own Buffy. I do not.

Author: Paradigm Shifter

Title: Lost Immortal: Chapter 2

Rating: Oh, hell. Everything I write is R, cause I don't know what the ratings mean. However: MULTIPLE CHARACTER DEATH!!!

Pairing: No real pairing. Just very slight Buffy/Angel, Willow/Oz, Xander/Cordelia, cause they were the pairings when it was set… kind of, anyway.

Feedback: Yeah!

Continuity: Up to Graduation. (Season 3 Finale) Then goes totally off track, no road trip, no Angel and Cordy leaving. But, in one respect, they do…

Follows Lost Immortal Chapter 1 (duh!)

Notes: This is a diversion to get me writing again, after being thoroughly disheartened by the progress of a novel I'm (trying) to write.

*

Sunnydale, 2201.

Xander hunkered down in the ditch by the side of the road as a vampire patrol passed by. If he wanted to enter Sunnydale, he would have to be extremely careful, making sure nothing and no one saw him, lest it all be for naught and the demon caught him.

As the idly gossiping 'squad' of four vampires passed, Xander let out a slow breath. It seemed, to him at least, that few vampires could actually sense him, and the ones that could were far too old to be interested in being a demon upstarts lackey. Grimacing to himself, Xander moved slowly in the direction opposite to the vampires, and approached the Sunnydale city limits.

*

As a second vampire patrol neared where he was crouching, Xander froze again. While he was unfound, he may as well try to remain that way.

_Shit, thought Xander,__ at the best I'm going to have about six hours there, then I'm gonna have to try getting out again. He smiled grimly, and checked the sword that he held carefully above the sludge and stagnant water that resided in the bottom of the ditch._

_But at least I'll be able to take out my frustrations on the way out. The only 'surviving' member of the Scooby gang felt tears try to escape as he thought of what little he had heard coming from Sunnydale over the past century, but his teacher had been correct, he had not been ready._

Truth be told, he still wasn't ready, but at least he might have a chance now.

Quietly standing, checking all the while that another patrol had not arrived, Xander rolled himself out of the ditch slowly, so as not to make noise or risk falling back in with the weight of sludge soaking his clothes.

_If I survive this night, mused Xander silently, _I'm gonna have a hell of a cleaning bill.__

With that thought, he stood up on the road and trotted off to his destination.

*

*

*

Xander knelt by the side of the graves in Sunnydale's 'Sunnyday' Cemetery. 

He looked down at the cracked and broken gravestones and a cold dread filled his gut. The graves of all his friends, Buffy, Willow, Oz, Cordelia, Giles, Joyce, Dawn, torn apart, the ground that they had been laid in desecrated by what had killed Xander in the 'beginning' or what would probably be more accurate to call the 'end'.

Rising to his feet again, Xander moved off for a short while, to attempt to find his own grave, the one he had forced his way out of so many years ago, with no knowledge of what he was, or what was going to happen. Xander considered it some sort of private miracle that the first immortal he encountered was not a 'head hunter' because with his normal luck, it should have been.

But no, it had to be him. Sean Whittaker, himself technically a young immortal, at only 40 years at the time of first meeting him. Sean had almost as much of a vendetta against the world and its dark side as Xander did, only this vendetta was focussed on a criminal kingpin, who had murdered him because Sean had got too close to answers during an investigation.

The kingpin in question died shortly after Xander met Sean, a 'victim of his own greed' according to news reports. Xander knew differently. Sean had gone out that night, with a serious look on his face, and a clean blade. He came home that morning, with a satisfied look and a blade in dire need of cleaning. Never stupid, despite what some would say, Xander could put two and two together, and indeed got the expected four.

92 years after that night, Sean had fallen to an unnamed headhunter, who Xander had promptly cut down like an unwanted tree. The quickening had faded to quickly to nothing, giving Xander no help as to who had killed his mentor.

None of that mattered now.

*

Xander reached his own grave, filled in and grown over again since his clawing out of the wooden box. The headstone still stood, slightly crooked, with the fruit of decades growing on the surface. Deciding to leave the dead in rest, especially if it was him, Xander returned to his friends memorials…

*

An hour later saw, or rather heard, 2am toll on the town hall, and Xander standing, merely looking at what was left of his friends. Remembering why he had taken such care to come here, Xander reached inside his trench coat, and extracted the seven white roses he had bought for this. Xander never understood the intricacies of the 'language of flowers' and as such just chose to get the same flower for each grave. 

Solemnly, Xander approached each grave and placed a rose on each one in turn, beginning with Buffy and ending with Willow. As he straightened up from this act, Xander heard a twig snap behind him and a voice he knew all too well echoed across the space between them to reach his ears.

Giles stood, in his habitual tweed suit, and sneered at him. "Oh, look how the boy comes to mourn for his friends. The friends he got killed. Isn't it sweet?" the last was a rhetorical question, as there was only Xander and Giles present.

Xander didn't look up, and didn't turn around. "Hello, Giles. I was expecting someone to show after I saw the graves."

"Yes, lovely isn't it! It is only a pity that it couldn't be Buffy here to greet you, but alas, she is 'busy' with our master."

Xander didn't want to know, and so, didn't ask. "How long have you been like this, Giles?"

An evil grin, reminiscent of ripper worked its way onto the librarians face. "Oh, I'd say since about a week after you left. While I'm not proud to say I was the first to fall, I am proud to say I was the first to serve our new master."

Xander still hadn't turned around to face Giles. "And how long did the others last?"

Giles laughed loudly. "Willow, Oz and Cordy," Giles used Xander's pet name for her, "all fell on the same night. And our master has chosen some absolutely delicious damnations for all of them."

Xander's face displayed his look of disgust. "Buffy? Joyce? Dawn? When did they fall?"

"Buffy lasted nearly a month. Quite impressive for such a useless Slayer…" Giles trailed off. "Joyce? Dawn? You really don't want to know…" the voice was as sadistic as it could possibly be and still be human.

Xander spun to face the shell, the abomination that his friend and teacher had become. "Tell me." He spat.

Giles sighed theatrically. "Oh, very well. Joyce, well, delicious isn't the word for her death. It was exquisite."

Xander was barely holding back an all-encompassing rage, and a strange queasiness. "Dawn?" Xander managed to croak out.

"That was the most beautiful. Years of being locked in a pit full of rat's does things to you, you know? And then, when we fished her out? She was screaming for death! Everyone had a go! And then, when our master was finished, Oz tore her apart."

Xander looked as if was going to vomit, and indeed a slight retching sound was heard. Recovering, Xander stared at Giles with murder in his eyes. "I've had enough of this, either get out of my way, and let me kill your 'master' or shut up and fight!"

"Can't have you doing that, can we?" asked Giles, walking slowly forward, and his game face shifting on as he neared. 

"No." whispered Xander, almost to himself. Sidestepping, Xander cleared blade from its sheath in his coat, and prepared for a gruelling fight. Killing a vampire was not hard, but killing a vampire with one of his friend's faces was beyond difficult.

With one final silent prayer, to anyone listening that gave a damn, Xander lunged…

*

Giles saw the move before Xander had even thought of it.  Stepping sideways and twisting, the ex-Watcher who was now a vampire serving the greatest evil to have invaded Sunnydale for nearly 1000 years dodged the blade by only a fraction of an inch, then batted it down with his fist, before bringing his other hand up and catching Xander in the jaw.

Even as an Immortal, Xander could not hope to match the strength of a vampire, and recognised that fact. After landing painfully on a gravestone, the top part of the cross snapping off as his weight landed on it full force, he cursed himself silently. He hadn't wanted to get into a fight now. He hadn't wanted to even be found in this Gods-forsaken place.

What was it his grandmother used to say?_ If wishes were fishes we'd all cast nets…_

Well, that sentiment certainly fitted his current situation well enough.

Rolling to his feet, Xander readied his blade again. If any chance presented itself to run, he would. He had done what he came to do, and that was put the memories of his friends to rest. Fighting them was not what he wished to do. Even if he had to run, with his tail between his legs, leaving something behind, he would. He couldn't face Giles or any of the others now. 

He just wasn't ready.

The pain was still too fresh.

Giles charged him, intent on ending it quickly, and Xander's rapier took him in the chest, spearing his right lung and heart, and glancing off of his shoulder blade, to come out of his back at a different angle to the one it went in.

Giles collapsed onto the dirt, and Xander took off, running…

*

*

*

Giles stood, and pulled the twisted blade out of his chest. It had hurt like a bitch, but hadn't taken that long to heal almost completely. Maintaining a grip on the blade, he went over to the graves of himself and his compatriots in damnation.

Taking great care, he ground each of the roses into the dirt, making Xander's gift only a memory…

*

End of Chapter 2. Hey, what do you know! My muse is back (kind of). Not sure if I'll continue this, because, as mentioned above, it was only intended to do what it appears to have done. If you want it continued, tell me…


	3. Chapter 3: A Surprise Meeting

Disclaimer: Joss, WB, UPN et al. own Buffy. I do not. 

Author: Paradigm Shifter

Title: Lost Immortal

Rating: Oh, hell. Everything I write is R, cause I don't know what the ratings mean. However: MULTIPLE CHARACTER DEATH!!!

Pairing: No real pairing. Just very slight Buffy/Angel, Willow/Oz, Xander/Cordelia

Feedback: Go ahead. Feedback is good. 

Continuity: Up to Graduation. (Season 3 Finale) Then goes totally off track, no road trip, no Angel and Cordy leaving. But, in one respect, they do…

Notes: I said I may not continue, but this is too interesting an idea to leave alone…

*

Xander sat crouched in an LA alley, hoping that no one would notice him, and begin asking uncomfortable questions. At a noise in the street outside, his head shot up and his eyes narrowed. 

The sounds of a battle. A violent one. Unsure as to whether he should get involved or stay out of the way, Xander stood up, using the wall as leverage and investigated the sounds.

Poking his head up above a trashcan, he saw two things that turned his stomach. Vampires.

Fighting each other, and not being terribly subtle about it either.

"Damn it…" Xander muttered, thoroughly annoyed that these two had disturbed his nice quiet hiding place. Pulling his knife, a poor replacement for the sword left in Sunnydale, Xander approached as stealthily as he could.

As he neared the fight, the taller of the two staked the other, causing a shower of dust, which quickly dissipated in the night breeze. He did not show any indication of sensing Xander, either by sound, smell… Xander would be the first to admit that nearly a century of failing to wash made you stink to high heaven… or by some other supernatural sense.

Without turning, the vampire spoke. "Come on out, I felt you nearly five minutes ago."

"I was hoping that you were just going to leave, personally. I don't want any trouble…" Xander hoped supplication would work, but honestly, he doubted it.

The vampire turned round, and Xander saw for the first time who it was.

"Angelus…" Xander whispered.

Angel cocked his head, and looked puzzled until Xander stepped fully out of the shadow.

Angel's eyes widened. "You…" he gasped. "Xander…"

Xander nodded his head slowly, aware of Angel's proximity. "Yeah, deadboy. It's me."

Angel's face went from shock to outright righteous rage. "You died! I saw you die!" bringing up a stake, Angel stalked toward him, before halting uncertainly feet away from Xander. "Wait… your not a…"

Xander backed away slowly, knowing that if Angel staked him, it would be hours before he was alive again. "No. I'm not. That was the first question when I woke up."

"How did you wake?" Angel asked.

"I don't know. But I woke up in a coffin. You buried me." Xander's tone was slightly accusatory.

"We thought you were dead… you were dead. That demon killed you…" Angel had trouble pulling his mind from the fact that Xander was standing talking to him, right in front of him, alive and… well… maybe. Smelly, certainly.

"Yeah. He did. I had an eight inch hole in my chest."

"Why did you leave? The gang died with you, you know…" Angel was angry, and showed it in his tone of voice.

Xander pulled a face, that said 'are you stupid? Wait, don't answer that…' and spoke. "Angel. It was very simple. I had died. I didn't know what I was, but was damned sure I would not get a warm welcome from Buffy or anyone else. Remember, deadboy, that things that come back to life in Sunnydale tend to be fangy and rather obsessed with blood."

"But why?" Angel's voice had a lost quality to it now.

Xander shook his head. "Get a grip, man. I just explained that. I left."

"You faked your death?" Angel seemed stuck on the point.

Xander was sick of this now. He nearly shouted, "How could I have faked my death, Deadboy? You saw the wound! It was an eight inch hole straight through my chest!"

"I don't know how you did it, but it destroyed everyone!" Angel shouted back.

"I didn't fake it, Angel. That really killed me. But I'm Immortal." Xander decided to drop the big one and see if Angel could run with the ball.

"What?" Train of thought derailed, Angel was brought up short with the statement on the end, until Xander decided to elaborate.

"I'm Immortal! You know, don't die! Well, except for one thing, but I ain't tellin' you, you might try it out!"

"So you were dead?"

Sighing heavily, Xander nodded. "Yeah."

*

Angel and Xander were sitting in a nearby bar that seemed all too friendly with demons for Xander's liking. Hell, the barman was one, and so was the Host, as he liked to call himself. Angel seemed to be relaxed here, and that was one more reason why Xander decided to be on his guard.

"Do you know what happened to the others after you died?" Angel wanted Xander to know, because if he didn't, when he did eventually find out, it would kill him again.

Xander nodded sombrely. "Yeah. I snuck into Sunnydale about a hundred years ago…" Xander smiled gently and tapped the table. "God, that sounds so weird. I still haven't got used to the fact that I'm gonna live forever."

Angel nodded, slightly disappointed that Xander knew, but also glad he wouldn't have to tell him. "I know what you mean. It took me a hundred and fifty years before I could get over the fact that I was never going to age, while everyone around me did."

"Anyway…" Xander slung his head back violently and downed the drink that had been in his hands in front of him. "Yeah. I saw them. Well, Giles at any rate. I lost my sword in a fight with him. Barely made it out alive really. Don't know what happened to the others, but Giles was dying to tell me. Trying to put me off, you know."

Angel nodded. It was a trick that Angelus used to use a lot. Tell someone what had happened to their nearest and dearest, and they inevitably began to lose it.

The evening was whiled away with small talk, and some drinking. But both knew that they would need to go back…

*

End of chapter 3. Chapter 4 is in the works. Hope you like this.


End file.
